ON MY MIND: The Wisdom of Chickens
Chickens? Wisdom? Give me a chance to explain. When I’m working with leaders I often find myself coming back to three words of advice inspired by author Greg McKeowen – “protect the asset.” He wrote: The best asset we have for making a contribution to the world is ourselves. If we underinvest in ourselves, and […]
FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Think Again by Adam Grant
The old saying, “seeing is believing” doesn’t really describe how we operate as humans. If you’ve spent any time with me in a workshop, you’ve probably heard me tell a favorite story that challenges this conventional wisdom. There’s this elderly couple. The wife Ethel becomes concerned that her beloved husband Joe is losing his hearing. […]
ON MY MIND: Past Experience is Not a Predictor of Future Performance
If you look at the typical resume, 80% of the document’s “real estate” is occupied by a section titled EXPERIENCE, in which job candidates describe their past employers, positions held, and length of service. There’s a reason for this – most employers place a great deal of emphasis on prior job experience when making hiring […]
ON MY MIND: Post-Traumatic Growth
“In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.” —Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning I’ve always been interested in self-repair – the ways in which we put ourselves back together after things fall apart. Over the last year, more and more of us are feeling a little (or […]
ON MY MIND: The Lifeblood of your Team
Imagine your team is a living organism — one whose health relies on a network of pathways that carry all the necessary nutrients to its various parts. Now imagine that the lifeblood of your team is made up of requests and promises. Think about this for a moment: There is a constant exchange of requests […]
IN MY TOOLBAG: Stick the Landing: How to Wrap Up Your Meetings for Impact
In the world of gymnastics, the dismount is the last thing a judge sees before determining an athlete’s score. When an athlete concludes their routine with perfection commentators often say that they “stuck the landing!” Too often, leaders bring people together to have important conversations or to make critical decisions but they fail at sticking […]
ON MY MIND: Three Ps of Team Excellence
Recently a client asked me, “what are the three things that matter most when it comes to creating a high-performance team?” Coming up with just three things was a formidable challenge. I can name ten. But three… After giving her question some thought, here’s what I shared: 1. Pride in Purpose A clear purpose inspires […]
IN MY TOOL BAG: Unresolve! Divest Yourself of What No Longer Serves
I am not a big fan of new year resolutions. Yes, I am a very goal-driven person, but the idea of adding more commitments to an already full list of promises I’ve made to myself and others stresses me out. If you follow my blog you know that I am a fan of a book […]
ON MY MIND: Coming Back Together (Part 3)
If you have read part 1 and part 2 of this blog about coming back together, you have probably asked yourself the questions: What does coming together actually look like in the face of charged political differences? How do we build empathy and understanding across differences without avoiding our honest disagreements? A new short documentary […]
ON MY MIND: Coming Back Together (Part 2)
After describing the dynamics of polarization in a previous blog, this second installment will highlight Parker Palmer’s essay entitled, “Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy.” It contains important insights on how we come back together in our families, work places, communities and our country. I’m taking some liberties with these five habits to […]